Mi primera semana en la univerisdad



On Monday, I went to my university (Universidad San Francisco de Quito) down here for my orientation. The campus is very beautiful and sits to the north of Quito down in a valley -- the buildings remind me of ones from a small village in the SW US. It has beautiful gardens, fountains, a pond with a Japanese type building next to it, tiled open areas outside in the center of campus, and places to play basketball, soccer, and Ecuavolle (Ecuador's version of volleyball). The campus is entirely surrounded by walls (again kinda just like an old desert town in the SW). On a side note, it seems almost every place has fencing and 24 hour security in Quito. From housing complexes to mall shops to small stores on the street, there are security guards patrolling. Really, though, only in the bus stations have I seen security with guns -- shot-guns to be specific.

And on another note before I begin my weekly summary, I am really lucky and happy to say that I will be living with Ruby's family, the Pozos, now for the entire summer. After being there for the previous week and enjoying it so much, the Pozos asked me if I wanted to live with them. I was easily able to work everything out the change with the university.

I will have classes from Monday til Thursday each week. For the first time in my college career, I will have a day off with 3-day weekends. My classes are Espanol Intermedio, Espanol Conversacion, and an art (drawing) class.

My day begins pretty early since my classes start at 8:30. I wake up at about 6:10 so that I can eat my hearty breakfast of breads, meats, cheese, chocolate milk, and fresh juice (I am definitely going to miss all the fresh fruits and their juices when I return). Marifer and I leave by 7:15 so to walk to the Trolle bus where we get dropped off and the Trolle station to transfer to a regular bus which takes us to another bus station. From this station we walk next door to yet another station to go to the university in Cumbaya (these have the buses that are basically just worn out coach buses). If all goes well, we get to the campus at about 8:15. My first day, I had to laugh on the bus because the whole time on the way to the university they were playing rock and roll songs.

My classes are 1 hour and 30 minutes -- with a 1 hour and 30 minute break, I get done at 2:30 and go home to eat lunch and do homework. Don’t worry though, I eat some lunch at the university. Dinner, like lunch is pretty late -- it can vary from 7:00 to 9:00 depending on what we need to do.

So I guess that is the boring version of what my typical day is. I just wish I could take some pictures of the university and the bus ride ... both are sights to see.

Over the holiday weekend (we too had a holiday here -- On May 24 was the Battle of Pichincha in which a decisive battle in Quito won the independence of Ecuador from Spain. It is easy remember any of the dates of holidays here because they are all major street names.) I visited Vane's family, went to a friend's birthday party, saw my first movie in Spanish (the majority of movies in the theaters are English with Spanish subtitles.), visited Rosita's family (the sister of Ruby) so to thank her for all here help in driving me around, went to Cotopaxi with Rosita's family (Rosita and Fernando with kids Fernando and Anthony) and Marifer and David. Cotopaxi is an active stratovolcano with a summit elevation of 19388 feet. I was a little worried on our drive there because for the first time in all my days in Ecuador, it was raining during the day. Even as we entered the Parque National de Cotapaxi we could not see the gigantic mountain, but as we made our way to the North face via car, the skies opened up. Two mentionable things happened while we were driving in the park that I don’t want to forget to say. One is that I had to pay 5 times more for to get into the park simply because I looked like a foreigner. The other is that on the way there on the dirt road, we actually had to drive through a big creek... the funny part was that a Ecuadorian truck was pulled over to the side and let us pass him. When the truck saw that we crossed successfully, he went ahead and crosses -- smart guy.

At the Northern Face, we drove a ways up dirt road surrounded by the land littered with big chunks of volcanic rock and parked the car.... our goal was to get to the shelter at 4800 meters (about 15748 feet). It really was not that far, but we were walking up loose dirt and going against a very strong wind at times probably gusting over 40 mph which carried ice pellets and snow from clouds that passed by. I would say it was in the 30's on the mountain and at the lake at the base of the mountain it was probably in the 60's with sunshine. And of course, the altitude did not make anything easier. Below are some pictures of our Sunday trip.

On our way to Cotopaxi, we stoped for breakfast (we left really early). It was a restaurant with lots of food fromt their farm. You can see all our juices in the background which is extremely common and you can see my fresh from the cow milk.
About halfway up to the shelter, which is in the background (Marifer, Fernadito, and I)
A view of the valley below
We came across a wolf at the shelter.
Finally at the top... I was pretty tired but all the chocolate I had helped a lot with the altitude. I was really surprised that the Fernadito made not only because of his age, but because he is really sensitive to the cold.
At the shelter, we enjoyed some hot tea and soup.

A view of shelter on the way down when some clouds we over the mountain

We stopped for a picture on our way out and the whole mountain cleared up. Our shelter was about 30 min from the snow line. After Cotopaxi, we drove to a very old hotel --- La Hosteleria Ciencias --- made by the French I think in the 1700's to study Cotopaxi.



A picture with everyone... Anthony, Rosita, Fernado, Fernadito, Marifer, and David.

A picture in the courtyard of the hosteleria. It was very beautiful.

Not only did the hosteleria have a restaurant which we ate at, but a Church.

On our way back, I was trying to take some pictures of the city... here is one
Another picture of the South side of the Quito which has more poverty than the north... As I was taking the picture, I happened to capture the police car in the background.